I know we've talked about the presence of a Tyranid mode going in, but we should flesh out some ideas right now. A timeline would be nice. :]

gly's timeline and my inspiration

Spoiler:

00:00Initiation of Tyranid Swarm mode (-ts)

10:00Genestealers start to spawn in the neutral woods and prey on creeps. Brood grows in size. No notable psychic disruption evident yet.

20:00Genestealers start to attack outposts of both sides, but are repelled. A broodlord can be seen, but is unlikely to attack yet. Psychic disruptions are evident, but not radical.

30:00The Tyranid fleet has fully arrived and with it the Shadow in the Warp. No communications or resources can be mobilized yet. At this point, the spawning creeps become finite and are able to be summoned to defend a point. They do not keep spawning, but remain in resources to be expended when needed.

35:00 Mycetic Spores start raining down. Carnifexes and other assorted Tyranid Creatures appear and start breaking down defensive positions. At this point, a wise general can still defend vital spots, but will have to abandon outposts situated too far near the river.

40:00All secondary outposts will have fallen by this point. Attention will turn to the base, which can be heavily fortified. Now the battle of attrition begins, with Tyranid creatures slamming against the base.

60:00 If the base of either team survives this long, the Tyranid fleet in orbis will have been engaged by allied forces. If enough biomass has been expended on the ground (i.e. enough tyranid kills/points), the fleet will be defeated and the planet saved. If not, however, the fleet will send more forces down and eventually overwhelm both bases and the planet.

EDIT: ok, so some more gameplay/code affecting thoughts...when -ts is entered... 1 random player from each team is switched over to a third team (the nids) and are given a different selection of heroes (only nid heroes... duh ) these two players will be announced and the enemies can see their hero selection just as normal.One random neutral creep spawn will then function as the 'fountain' for the nid heroes, and become like their home base... (havnt decided if itll have shops as well)(expanding on this) one random neutral creep spawn will be replaced with a swarm lord (does not respawn) this swarmlord functions as the HQ buildings of the nids, it is given the Neutral Wander ability (the ability the sheep etc have that make them move about) with an aoe(if i can do this) of about 700.if the Swarmlord dies, all nids (if possible) unally themselves and their heroes (heroes remain allied to eachother).-> untill 10 minutes, the nid heroes only have themselves on a team, and can only really do some hit and run ganks, or farm forrest creeps.

at 10 minutes, any creep spots that have no creeps currently in them will instantly become nid spawns (so its the nid players mission to clear as many spawn as possible) the difficulty of the spawn before conversion will dictate the difficulty of the nid spawn after conversion.the aoe of the swarmlord's Wander ability will be increased to 1500-> it is possible that it will wander into lanes, i am aware of this and that is intended

at 20 minutes, a timer starts. every 1 minute every tyranid on the map will attack the enemies base closest to themThe swarmlords wonder increased to 3000 aoe

at 30 minutes (sorry gly, im not going to do away with creep spawning. it is still an aos after all) whenever a creep spot is cleared when the nids are told to attack the enemy base, they become nid spawns instad.swarmlords wander incrased to 6000 aoe

35 minutes, some sort of 'hive base' spawns at the intial spawning location giving the nid heroes the equivalant of drop pods and comes with targetable artilary-like guns. at thsi point, one random nid from existing spawns will be added to their spawn every 5 minutes (so if a spawn has 3 hormagaunts and a geanstealer... it will pick one random unit from that group, and make the point spawn an additional of that unit every time)swarmlord's wander increased to 12000 aoe

tyranids win by killing either one of the enemies basehumans/orks win by killing the opposing teamhumans/orks lose if they die to the nids

i dont know what will happen to the still remaining team if the nids kill off their opponent... cause the whole reason is to kill off you opponenet then retreat before the nids get u... possibly give a loss to both teams if the nids kill an enemy?

edit: i know this has prolly been worked on past what i have here... (i know it has), but just a reminder for me...

We could have the sides go and capture/destroy capillary towers and make it a 1 vs 1 vs 1. If the Imperium could cripple the spawning centers and handle the sporadic appearances of Tyranids, let's say they get some sort of bonus that reflects the time and resources spent to slow down the tyranids.

I seem to remember deus making a nid hero, a genestealer i think, along with my primacii. Perhaps every 5 or ten minutes a 'boss' unit spawns in one of the lanes or something (like titans mode).

Grass, you said it was a type of defense mode right? Maybe we can go through the general layout of the mode and change it to a type of survival, and at the end when 'all hope is lost' a deathmatch commenses against the players and specialised nid heroes. (AI/Player controlled?) if one dies during the deathmatch he obviously cant respawn. So the last team/player standing wins the game for thier team. (Involving both teams, orcs and men.)

_________________The warrior who acts out of honour cannot fail. His duty is honour itself. Even his death - if it is honourable - is a reward and can be no failure, for it has come through duty. Seek honour as you act, therefore, and you will know no fear.

take 1 random player from each team and have them on the nid side. with each kill, they help the tyranid cause, and help spawns. the two main forces are trying to kill each other, before the nids get too strong and overwhelm them. If a base is killed by imperials or orks, games over for the winning side retreats. if nids kill a base then it could become a nid base and the losing side joins the nids to take on the survivor.

nids start off in the forest, with very small spawns to start with. as the game goes along, maybe they can upgrade spawns since they wont be able to get gear. If they get a base, whoopdy fucking do, the imperials and orks would both rush to kill it, then return to trying to kill each other. The nids would probably come in after about 8 mins after the game starts

I agree with Changer. Nids should have an armory of sorts where they can research upgrades for their little troops and special building. Every time an enemy hero is killed, a random skill of theirs is absorbed into the hive mind's consciousness to be used by Hive Tyrants, Carnifexes, and the like.

So this special building would be empty at first, but as enemy heroes are killed, a random skills is transformed and made into an equivalent item with limited uses. It could become a temporary skill, but I'm not sure how that would work.

maybe, instead of weapon and armor shops, they have a genetic research facility of some sorts. The place offers them the ability to help nid swarms or nid heroes. Like increase strength or resistance for a hero, or we could go really far out and say thats how they get their skills.